Robusta coffee on ICE recovered on Friday but remained close to the previous session's nine-year low as sellers in Vietnam finally fixed prices after months of delay. November robusta coffee rose $13, or 1%, to $1,285 per tonne by 1330 GMT, after hitting a nine-year low of $1,262 on Thursday.
There is not much robusta in top producer Vietnam as the season comes to an end, but traders who have been holding back on fixing futures prices have finally been forced to do so, said a dealer. Vietnam's domestic coffee prices stayed unchanged on Thursday from a week earlier, with trading activities expected to remain subdued until the next harvest season in October.
December arabica rose 0.5 cents, or 0.5%, to 95.90 cents per lb, still some way off a five-month low of 93.40 cents set on Aug. 20. Weakness in Brazil's real currency has weighed on arabica of late, but the market is due to see less excess supply as Brazil moves into an off-year crop cycle, where tired trees flower less. October raw sugar fell 0.04 cent, or 0.4%, to 10.93 cents per lb, having hit 10.86 cents on Thursday, its weakest since late September 2018.
October white sugar, which expires at the end of next week, was down $1, or 0.4%, at $301.30 per tonne, having hit its weakest since mid-July at $300.20 on Thursday. Dealers said nearby supplies remain ample and large deliveries were expected both against the whites and the raws contract, which expires at the end of this month. December New York cocoa rose $15, or 0.7%, to $2,260 per tonne. The market continues to regain some ground, with rains in top producer Ivory Coast prompting some concerns about quality. A large Ivory Coast crop is still expected overall. December London cocoa was up 6 pounds, or 0.3%, at 1,742 pounds a tonne.